Revelation 17:1 - 6

The Scarlet Woman and the Scarlet Beast

1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

3 So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. 5 And on her forehead a name was written:

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,

THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS

AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS

OF THE EARTH.

6 I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.

The book of Revelation goes back in the progression of time again. This chapter deals with the time just before the Reformation.

The combination of church and state has not been dissolved at the beginning of this chapter is known as “Babylon the Great” and is an enemy of God. But it is the church part which receives more attention from God in His condemnations. The reason He condemns it more is because the affairs of the soul are more important in the long range scheme of life than the earthly government policies and actions.

But because the church is supported by the political power of Rome and its empire much of the symbols will be based upon the geographical and political features of the earthly features of Rome.

The angel tells John he wants to show him the actions of judgment God will take against Rome, while John is still entranced in the vision on the Isle of Patmos.

The false religions are like idolatry, because they are stealing the faith of individuals from their commitment to God and giving it to doctrines which are not from God. God only has one doctrine, it has not devolved into many true doctrines from God, all the other versions of the doctrine are influenced by Satan's lies and have made institutions which promote these doctrines no different than whores which take a person's desires and change what is right into an unfaithful act which is not accepted by anyone least of all the aggrieved partner or God. So the apostate church or the Roman-Catholic church is called the great whore or harlot.

Her being described as sitting on many waters represents the huge number of people Her intolerance and persecutions held down into a literal slavery to her and she forced her false doctrine upon them.

The kings represent the rulers over the various kingdoms and states of the political empire. They are guilty of spiritual fornication by their devotion to the great harlot.

The inhabitants of the earth are the people who were living under the rules of these kings and submitted to the spiritual adultery of the great harlot.

In the worldly practice of associating with women which are not a spouse wine is often interjected into the practice of fornication, such is this part of John's vision.

John is still on the Isle of Patmos, in a trance, or sleeping while experiencing this vision, so it is appropriate he feels like he is carried to this destination in the wilderness.

The woman represents the apostate or Roman-Catholic church, she is supported by the political and military power of the Roman empire, the fitting application of the first beast, the reason for using scarlet as the color of the beast is scarlet is one of the royal colors of the Roman Empire.

Of course the seven heads represent the seven hills which the city of Rome is built on. The ten horns represent the ten kingdoms which make up the empire. Later in this chapter the ten kingdoms will have a slightly different explanation.

The official colors of the Roman empire, the beast was scarlet and purple. Since the rider, the Roman-Catholic church, the great whore, was supported by the powers of the beast it is appropriate that her robes match as well.

Since the harlot and the beast killed so many true Christians and shed their blood it is appropriate the official colors are the same as the blood shed by them.

The precious stones and pearls represent the great wealth of which the Catholics use for their temples and in their religious practices.

The cup represents all of the evil practices the Roman-Catholic empire forced on her helpless subjects to commit, it is like filling a cup with a vile and detestable liquid and then forcing a weak person to drink it.

The names put on the forehead of the harlot are put there by God, the leaders of the church headquartered in Rome deny these apply to their institution.

“Mystery” is a part of her characteristics. Thayer says: “The mystic or hidden sense.” this organization has always thrived the most when she could keep her people ignorant of what was going on within her organization.

“Babylon the great” Babylon was great in a bad sense because she was the most extensive and powerful influence for evil of which Satan has ever planned.

“Mother of Harlots” when you look at most of the religious organizations in the world today it is easy to see they were born in the Catholic church and spun off from it, but even though they reformed, they still practice false doctrines most of which originated their tenets from the doctrines put out by the Roman Catholics.

“Saints and martyrs” refer to the same people but the words do have a different meaning.

A saint is a holy or righteous person which applies to all true Christians.

A martyr means witness, all Christians are martyrs because their faithful lives testify to the Gospel of Christ.

“Saints and martyrs” both shed their blood, they died because they would not give up their faith in Christ, this proves that a martyr does not have to die to be a martyr, a martyr is a witness to Christ.

This “great harlot,” “Mysterious Babylon the Great” was drunk on the blood of Christians, so drunk and intoxicated with the feeling that she wanted to continue killing.

This was so abhorrent in John's eyes that he could not keep from staring in amazement, not wonder or awe but one of horror.